Waging war on litter louts

THE streets of Saddleworth are a little less litter strewn thanks to the area’s favourite newspaper.

Oldham Council nominated the Saddleworth Independent, along with the borough’s other media outlets, to pick up at least one piece of rubbish or debris from their local area.

So, editor Trevor Baxter accepted the challenge, dug out his litter picker and refuse sacks and went out on a one-man clean up operation.

Uppermill

Greenfield (Trevor Baxter just missing out on a selfie)

Greenfield

Diggle

Dobcross

Delph

Grasscroft

Lydgate

Scouthead

Austerlands

Lees

Lees

Grotton

Springhead

Grotton

Ladcastle Lane, Greenfield

Starting in Grotton, he took in all of Saddleworth’s villages before finishing in Uppermill-the paper’s home base.

Some of the 13 villages were tidier than others, with Lydgate winning the gold medal for cleanliness with not one piece of litter spotted.

Most of the rubbish collected were plastic and glass bottles, sweets and crisp wrappers, chip trays, fast food boxes, and empty cigarette packets.

Fly tipping at Ladcastle Road

There were a few surprises along the way including ladies underwear on Ladcastle Road at Greenfield, a man’s boot, empty laughing gas cylinders and a discarded blue bin. Two Co-op advertising signs were discarded close to the Grotton store.

We also spotted a major incident of fly tipping in Greenfield which has been reported to Oldham Council.

In just under three hours we collected two big sacks of rubbish plus another supermarket carrier bag full.

This wasn’t bad considering the size of the area but there’s still more out there to be collected.

As part of the Oldham Council #1PieceofRubbish initiative, each person or organisation who takes part is asked to nominate five others to take up the baton.